Hand-writing Chinese Characters from memory has always been one of the most difficult aspects of learning Chinese as a second language, especially for learners from non-character backgrounds. Advances in mobile touch screen technology have led to the development of character drawing apps to aid the process of character memory acquisition, but there are still questions about their efficacy compared to traditional writing practice using pen and paper. In 2017 I designed a study to examine how practicing Chinese Characters via finger tracing on a touch screen affected students' ability to write those characters later from memory using pen and paper. Scroll down to learn more about the project details and outcomes.

The study involved 28 students enrolled in a day school in Virginia during the spring of 2017. They were all 5th to 8th grade native-English speakers with no prior exposure to Chinese language. The study was presented as a competition to see who could remember and correctly write out the most characters after having the same amount of overall study time. Students were divided into two groups of 14, which were randomly assigned after being balanced by age and gender.

The activities were held in a school library. Before the program started, the students were given a 2-day introduction to the Chinese writing system and briefed on the practice and test format. For practice, the control group used a traditional pen and paper method with character sheets and flash cards, while the experimental group used mobile touch screen devices with a Chinese character practice software called Skritter.

Using their assigned paper or digital materials, both groups practiced writing and reviewing the first set of 15 characters for about 12 minutes a day for 4 days, knowing they would be taking the first test on day 5. The following week they were given an additional 25 characters to practice 4 more days before a cumulative 40-character test on the 10th day. Thus the first two announced tests were given on days 5 and 10. The procedure ended with an unannounced retake of the second test 2 weeks later to measure retention levels. The tests were then collected and analyzed using descriptive statistics.

All students took the test at the same time under supervision. They were shown an English word and given 15 seconds to write the corresponding Chinese Character on their answer sheet in blank A. After 15 seconds, they were then shown the correct character and instructed to copy it as neatly as they could in blank B, regardless of what they did in blank A. They were thereby able to show both what they could write from memory (A) and how neatly they could write when given visual aid (B), which allowed me to compare both the character recall and the hand-writing ability of the two groups.

Test analysis indicates that there was no statistically significant difference in performance between the two groups on the first two tests. However, on the third test the experimental (touch screen) group retained a significantly higher number of characters than the control group. This suggests that learning to write Chinese primarily through a touch screen does not inhibit students' ability to write characters from memory, and in some cases may lead to slightly better long-term recall.

One student below practiced only on pen & paper. The other practiced only on a touch screen.

Can you tell the difference?